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Showing posts from September, 2015

Butterflies Are Free

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Always on the lookout for new experiences (and ways with potential for getting lost, hurt, looking foolish, ending up on 'Cops' or any combination of those things) I saw an ad on Facebook for 'Monarch Butterfly Taggers'. The Madison Audubon group was asking for volunteers to go to the Goose Pond Sanctuary in Arlington to capture, tag and release Monarchs for the folks at Monarchwatch.org who track their migration to Mexico each year. Goose Pond is gorgeous and the fields were blooming with goldenrod and fall asters. It was a little breezy, but warmed up quickly. Couldn't have picked a better day for capturing the Wee Beasties. After a short how-to on how to capture, tag and release we were off! That's 'Capture' (see the net??)... 'Tag' (that little sticker on the wing) And 'Release' You'd think for sure they would just fly in circles with that sticker on their wings but they don't. Experiment co

I Saw This Thing on Pinterest: Baked Pumpkin Doughnuts

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I saw the same ads you all did a while back; the ones for the baked donut pans and accompanying paraphernalia for making a 'healthy' alternative to the fat-laden breakfast treats. I thought it looked cool but wasn't willing to pay $19.99 for them because nothing EVER works like it does in those infomercials. My Momma's so proud she din't raise up no fool!  But then I found the whole kit and caboodle, still in the box, a couple of summers ago for $1 at a yard sale. Well now. I won't ruin $20 worth of ingredients on a $19.99 pan but for a $1..... Maybe my Momma should reconsider, They've just been sitting in my pan cupboard since then. I KNEW they would be awful so why bother! (I know, don't try to figure out the wonky thought process. I've long since given up.) But then I poked around Pinterest. Dog help me, but some of my greatest successes AND failures have started with the phrase 'I saw this thing on Pinterest'; a phrase that's t

Molly Bee and The Really Really Big Mushroom

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While out and about last Friday, I saw this peeking out of the tall grass under a big tree over by Farm and  Fleet. I suspected it was a giant puffball.  I had seen several from afar and lots on-line, but never gotten up and personal with one, so of course I trudged across the field and picked it.  Here it is in the trunk of the car. As I approached it in the field, I thought I had been mistaken. This is the top and it looked like a giant blog of that liquid insulation stuff...we were by Farm and Fleet, a giant hardware and farming equipment store,after all. But the minute I touched it (and smelled it) I knew it was the real deal.  It grows on the ground so it took me a few minutes to evict the myriad of creepy-crawlies that lived on the mushroom's underside.  I brought it home and set it on our patio table, It was significantly larger than a basketball, and a solid, fleshy 5.7#!  I knew that the scuttlebutt on my Nature group on-line has said that they were edib

Diva Challenge 253 Stripes

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This week's Diva Challenge was to just draw stripes across the tile as a string. Never one to follow directions, mine are curvy instead of straight but there you go. This was definitely a therapeutic tangle for me! Thanks for the challenge, Laura!

Molly Bee and the Very Very Scary Thing

I got my safe, secure, little world rocked to its core this week. I stopped at a local gas station to get an iced tea and a bag of peanuts on my way to work. I had been working at home all morning while a handyman installed our new storm door and had rushed out afterward forgetting lunch. As I entered the store, I heard a loud gentleman, with a pronounced Southern accent, talking to some people on the other side of the store. The only reason I noticed was because of the strong accent, not that they were yelling or fighting or anything. I got my iced tea and nuts and proceeded to the front of the store. The man with the accent was now alone. He grabbed my arm and asked me if there were any restaurants around here within walking distance. I pointed out a few, while trying to gently extricate my arm. He tightened his grip and said that they were too far away for him to walk, and that he wasn't from around here, and that I would be driving him. Still trying to be reasonable and half

Meditating on Meditation

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I took an Intro to Meditation class at the local library tonight. I've meditated a bit in the past but wanted to get an overview of some of the different methods available. The class started at 7PM.  The room was so heavy with patcholi incense that I wasn't sure I was going to be able to stay.  My nose plugged up and my eyes watered, but I finally lost my sense of smell and then it was somewhat OK. But by 7:15 I had failed the course completely. My mellow was so thoroughly harshed that it's lucky I didn't hurt someone. In what universe do you sign up for a 7PM MEDITATION course, show up 10-15 late and then enter the room, gabbing loudly on your cell phone,  asking people to move so you and your equally tardy and talkative friend can sit together, and asking what you missed?  And it wasn't just one or two people. It was about ten, one or two at a time, spaced in intervals that exactly matched when we'd just got calmed down from the last idiots that crash